The road has total length of over 139.2km, including 131.5km of high-speed road and another 7.7km linking the expressway with National Highway 1A. It traverses Da Nang city, Quang Nam province and Quang Ngai province, which form part of the central key economic region of Vietnam.
It allows speed limits of up to 120km per hour, helping reduce travel time from Da Nang to Quang Ngai to one and a half hours, instead of the usual three hours when using National Road 1A.
The project, beginning in 2013, costs over 34.5 trillion VND (1.64 billion USD), including 798.5 million USD loaned by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and over 590 million USD by the World Bank (WB). The rest was covered by the Vietnamese Government.
The first 65km-long section, linking Da Nang and Tam Ky city of Quang Nam, was inaugurated in August 2017.
Da Nang – Quang Ngai Expressway is expected to create opportunities for central localities to make breakthroughs, attract investment, and promote the development of industrial parks and tourism along the country’s central coast.
It is also hoped to boost transport connectivity from the Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia economic triangle through the East-West Economic Corridor to seaports in the central region.
Speaking at the launch ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung thanked the JICA and the WB for funding the project.
He asked the Ministry of Transport to direct the investor to urgently complete support facilities along the route, and the investor, Vietnam Expressway Corporation, to abide by State regulations in management, exploitation and maintenance of the expressway, ensuring traffic safety, environmental hygiene as well as safe, smooth and effective operation of the road.-VNA
